Growing up in San Jose, California, pianist Gregory Chen first found his passion for music
in the works of classical greats such as J.S. Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin and at the age of thirteen fell in love with the sound of jazz, finding it to be a natural extension of his classical training. Soon, he was experimenting with and combining a variety of musical styles including funk, fusion, rock, gospel, and Latin music. By the age of eighteen, Gregory had already played at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall – Lincoln Center, World Trade Center 7, Gramercy Theatre, Symphony Space in Manhattan, Puppets Jazz Bar in Brooklyn, the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, Jazz at the Bistro in St. Louis Missouri, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, the American Jazz Museum “Blue Room” in Kansas City, and the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Cincinnati, Smoke Jazz and Supper Club in Manhattan, among other venues. He has appeared at the Monterey and San Jose jazz festivals, among others. Gregory has had the opportunity to perform with such jazz musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz, Candido Camero, Ambrose Akinmusire, Steve Wilson, Jon Gordon, Julian Lage, Bobby Watson, Anton Schwartz, and Mike Tomaro. He has studied with Garry Dial, Ted Rosenthal, Peter Horvath, Michael Zilber, Frank Sumares, and Pablo Mayor among others.

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Picture this. You’re a jazz saxophone player named Bill Chaplain and you’re wondering just how prominent you are on Google. So you search your name. Turns out, there’s another Bill Chaplain who’s a killer visual artist. He dominates the search results, and all the images in “google images” are of him and his art work. This will not do…

Then you search for “jazz saxophone new york city” just to see if you come up. Instead, you find all of the other crazy good saxophonists in NYC. Once again, looks like you need some work there, Bill.

OK. So how do we solve this problem? One answer. Keywords.

In every single blog post I write, you will notice a wealth of tags that go along with it. For example, I tagged this post with “marketing for musicians,” “social media” “music business tips,” and here’s the best part, “noah kellman.” Give google a couple of weeks, and this post will show up when you search my name.

Let’s get down to business. Here’s what you need to know:

In order to show up in google, you will need to have a lot of content on the internet, and you will have to link it all to yourself with keywords. Here’s a list of steps that will get you started and on your way to being a search results master:

Write a list of keywords with which you would like to be associated. (Don’t just write “Britney Spears” because everyone likes her. There are already millions of people out there who do this, so it won’t work. And besides, remember the old phrase “quality over quantity?”

Go to Flickr.com and create an account. Upload tons of photos of yourself and tag them with your keywords.

Make a blog on wordpress.com. You can start by posting these pictures on the blog. If you like writing, then write on your blog! Otherwise, you can always post videos from shows, interviews, pictures, updates, news, etc. Your fans will love it. The key here is to make sure that:

The title of each post includes some keywords.

Your first sentence includes keywords.

You put your keywords in the post tags.

From now on, anytime you post anything on the internet, make sure that you include your keywords in any of the text describing it and use tags! This will help google find you and everything associated with you.

Good luck!

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Lets be honest. For most musicians out there, facebook is still just a great way to send out ridiculous event invites that absolutely no one cares about (i.e. slowly lose more and more fans). “But isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?” You ask. “How else will people know when and where I’m playing?” Well I have news for you… if you are using your facebook profile to send out event invites to anyone other than your good friends, you are probably pissing people off, or at the very least, just getting ignored. THIS IS WHY FACEBOOK CREATED ARTIST PAGES. If you are an artist, go on facebook and create an artist page. DO NOT SEND ONE MORE EVENT INVITE FROM YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE.

Why is an artist page any different? Because anyone who will receive information from your artist page has “liked” you already, thus saying essentially that he or she actually WANTS to hear about what you’re doing. DISCLAIMER: Do not make a facebook page and then harass everyone to get as many likes as possible. It’s QUALITY vs. QUANTITY here folks. You want people who are actually interested to “like” your page. This leads to the next point. If you read CrushIt, you’ll have this hammered in throughout the entirety of the book. How to get fans: be honest, be sincere, be yourself, and most importantly, be consistent. Social media is a constant conversation between you and your fans. You never want to ignore them. You always want to be sincere. You want everyone to feel like they’re part of the conversation. You want people to like you. And “like” you.

Follow these 3 simple rules at all times:

1. Answer everyone, and answer them in a timely manner. This means answer people’s comments on your facebook posts, etc.

2. Be sincere. Don’t post anything for the sake of posting.

3. Post content (videos, links, writing, etc.), but only content that means something to you. Tell your fans why you like it. This will actually end up showing them why they should like it. This can include funny or interesting videos of yourself, things you’ve written, or just links to stuff that you enjoy.

Finally, be patient. Don’t expect to get a ton of fans all of the sudden. If you’re consistent and sincere and post interesting content, your fan base will grow.

Some extra tips for getting fans:

Make sure you have links to all of your social media on the home page of your website

Put your facebook link on your business card.

Put the link in your email signature.

Bring a sign to shows with a small paper to join the email list, and say “Find me on facebook” with your link.

Start voicing your opinions and making a presence online by commenting on other people’s facebook pages (if you’re a saxophonist, post SINCERE comments on other saxophonist’s pages so their fans can find you. BUT DO NOT PROMOTE YOURSELF ON OTHER PEOPLE’S PAGES.)

Comment on blogs and websites related to your subject.

Put in a google alert for keywords that match your subject matter (if you’re a pianist who loves bill evans, put in a google alert for discussions surrounding Bill Evans). You can then follow these words and track conversations about them. Then comment and leave a link back to your facebook!

Use keywords and phrases in your posts (if you’re a jazz violinist, keywords might include: jazz violin, jazz violinist, how to play jazz violin, jazz violin composer, you get the point.)

If you want to check out some more detailed info about social media, I highly recommend these sources: